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Employment Agencies Act 1973

By DavidMarsden

Dear All,
We were chosen (randomly) for an inspection last week by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to make sure we’re complying fully with the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
Apparently we are the next “category” on their list and they’ll be inspecting many more acting/ talent agencies & model agencies over the coming months. They visited the office and checked the whole process from submitting clients for work; negotiating of contracts; invoicing/ payments (including time-frames); our business & clients’ accounts and the Terms of Business we hold with each client.
I’m sure most of us are complying with the majority of the Act & Conduct Regulations however we’ve just been served with an Infringement Notice because we are in breach of Regulation 18 – Health & Safety. We have 2 weeks to comply before they proceed to legal action/ conviction of an offence.
The regulation requires us as an “employment agency” to ascertain from every employer or “hirer” whether there are any risks to health or safety known to the hirer and what steps the hirer has taken to prevent or control such risks. We then must record this information and provide this to our “worker” (actor) for every booking.
Of course we know this is almost impossible and we’d grind to a halt if we had to do this for every actor and every shoot location, set, studio, theatre space etc etc but they’re insisting this is what we must do.
Is anyone else going through a similar situation/ have experience with how we navigate this part of the Employment Agencies Act 1973?
Thanks in advance,
David